GREATEST LOSS: Greg Zeurlein's Wide Left
There were a lot of impressive plays yesterday, but perhaps the most impressive one of them all was Rams kicker Greg Zeurlein (one day Mastodon will write a song about him and Steve Beuerlein) attempting a game-winning 66-yard field goal against Miami, which would have been an NFL record, and pushing it wide left. In the hands of an average kicker, that 66-yarder would have fallen hopelessly short. But Zeurlein is no ordinary kicker. He's a freakshow. He's like Sebastian Janikowski without the GHB. He OBLITERATED the kick. Had it been more accurate, it would have sailed over the crossbar with plenty of room to spare. It would have been good from 70. Shit, it would have been good from Disneyworld. There is no doubt that Zeurlein will have another chance to kick that field goal, and that he will not miss. You always hear announcers being like, "We were there in practice, and Kicker X was making them from 70!" And then that NEVER happens in game action. But with Zeurlein, the possibility feels realer than ever.

Yesterday represented Zeurlein's worst day as a pro, but he's already being heralded as one of greatest kicking weapons an NFL has ever had, and he isn't alone. Three rookie kickers are currently in the top 10 among all NFL kickers (Zeurlein, Minnesota's Blair Walsh, and Baltimore's Justin Tucker), and it's possible that we've only begun to see the influx of a new and more powerful breed of NFL kicker. Let me give you a couple of reasons for this, none of which are rooted in any kind of useful factual evidence:

The last we heard from Stephon Marbury, he was navigating his new life—a rebirth if you will—in China.
Then,
just days ago, he reappeared in our inbox like an apparition, with news
of
how everything has panned out:

The New York Knicks letting Jeremy Lin walk out the door—for nothing—was the dumbest decision in the history of professional sports.

But let's forget about that for a moment. The words "dumb" and "Knicks" are so interchangeable at this point that the notion of the franchise choosing an option with a $15 million downside (the excess luxury tax the team faced if it matched Houston's offer) over an option with a billion dollar downside (Lin's potential career marketing value if he kept up his level of play) is actually unsurprising. This is the Knicks. This is what they do. Let's move on. Let's have the other conversation, the one nobody seems to want to have because "dumb" seems to explain it all. No, dumb explains 98 percent of it. Let's talk about the other 2 percent.

For a decade, he was known throughout the league as the crafty, brainy, pesky glue guy who teammates loved and opponents despised. But Shane Battier didn't win an NBA title--had never even reached the Finals--until this month, when his Miami Heat knocked off the upstart Oklahoma City Thunder in five games. On the eve of the NBA Draft, GQ spoke with Battier about Draft Night fashion, his unforgettable meeting with Red Foo from LMFAO, and Duke's not-so-hot reputation outside of Durham, North Carolina. Oh, and that LeBron guy, too.

My friends and I were debating this over the weekend and, as someone who's charitable foundation is called the Battier Take Charge Foundation, you seem like the right guy to settle it: Is it ever acceptable to take a charge in a pickup basketball game?
[laughs] It's only acceptable to take a charge in pickup when it's Game Point. When winning and staying on the court is at stake, I think anything goes. Taking a charge is absolutely acceptable.

Oh, c'mon! If anything, it's just the opposite--every point but Game Point is acceptable.
If you feel that way, you don't know anything about winning. When it's winning time, it's anything goes. Anything.

James Goldstein isn't just another basketball fan. A Lakers season ticket holder since 1961, you may have seen him sitting with Kanye West during fashion week, noticed his house on the cover of Architectural Digest, or read about his romance with Jayne Mansfield. He keeps the specifics of his wealth and power vague, but his clout is unmistakable. Always courtside, draped in couture and topped off with those signature wide brimmed hats, he's recognizable during any broadcast. During the regular season, Goldstein attends practices and press conferences, even occasionally popping up in the locker room. During the NBA Playoffs, he criss-crosses the map, attending as many games as possible and constantly reminding us how enmeshed he is in the league's fabric. There's been much written about Jimmy, but it's still rare to hear from the man himself. So GQ asked him to check in with us periodically during this year's playoffs and tell us about his experiences. This is his fourth dispatch. Click here here, here, here and here for the first four.

"It's about damn time." LeBron's win-line cut both ways, simultaneously a statement of relief, entitlement, and pure fact. In short, it was quintessential LeBron James, in the same way that Kevin Garnett's primal yowl and Ron Artest's ode to Queensbridge and his therapist captured what was, for them, the outward result of whatever goes through one's head minutes after winning an NBA title.

On the eve of what could be LeBron James's long-awaited first title, we caught up with the guy who might soon be the best player in the NBA without a ring, Steve Nash. In New York for the launch of the new Samsung Galaxy S III phone, Nash spoke to GQ contributor Peter Schrager about playing pickup hoops in New York, Dirk Nowitzki's bachelor party, and some of the absurd fashion choices on display during the 2012 NBA playoffs.

It seems as though every 30-something guy in New York City who's ever picked up a basketball claims that he's played pickup ball with you. Could that really be true?
I've heard that and I hate to break it to you, but it's false. I live here in the summers, but very rarely--if ever--do I play pickup hoops. One time, probably eight years ago, I was shooting jumpers on one end of a court and a bunch of kids were playing 3 on 3 at the other. They asked if I'd join, I did, and then took some photos with them afterward. This must have been right when the Internet started really taking off and social media was getting big, and the pictures made all the rounds. But it was just that one time and the guys were not 30-year-old dudes.

So, all those lawyers and bankers at water coolers across Manhattan are lying? You didn't play pickup hoops with them?
Not unless they were in that one game eight years ago, no. Probably not.

Before James became a universal object of unfiltered scorn, the biggest knock on him was simply, that he was boring. Maybe he was arrogant or lacking in seriousness; that invariably came up at some point. But the real gripe, one that spanned the whole of his charmed career and applied even to his virtuosic style of play, was that LeBron James was simply too much of a given. He was bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, and more skilled than anyone on the court. He could take over games, cause defensive schemes to crumble, create turnovers, and dance his way to the basket no matter who or what stood in the way. When his jumper was falling, the feeling of total dominance could be almost sickening. When it wasn't, the fear that it might was enough to let him shape the game. Of course James would win MVPs; the outrage over his last few seasons has been as much about his failure to realize the obvious (especially with Wade and Bosh on hand) as a desire to see him come up short. James should rule basketball. It's only natural.

James Goldstein isn't just another basketball fan. A Lakers season ticket holder since 1961, you may have seen him sitting with Kanye West during fashion week, noticed his house on the cover of Architectural Digest, or read about his romance with Jayne Mansfield. He keeps the specifics of his wealth and power vague, but his clout is unmistakable. Always courtside, draped in couture and topped off with those signature wide brimmed hats, he's recognizable during any broadcast. During the regular season, Goldstein attends practices and press conferences, even occasionally popping up in the locker room. During the NBA Playoffs, he criss-crosses the map, attending as many games as possible and constantly reminding us how enmeshed he is in the league's fabric. There's been much written about Jimmy, but it's still rare to hear from the man himself. So GQ asked him to check in with us periodically during this year's playoffs and tell us about his experiences. This is his fourth dispatch. Click here, here and here for the first three.

There's no NBA playoffs pickle quite like the 1-2 hole, especially on the road. We've discussed this before: A win ties the series an injects new vigor into the warring, while a loss means a near-impossible 1-3 predicament. The OKC Thunder lost on Sunday. There were questionable calls, including one that shelved Durant with OKC holding a 10-point lead, and the Heat's outside shooting was moribund. But the Thunder also made its fair number of mistakes and the Heat, especially LeBron James, were positively bone-pulping. What a man.